{"id":232875,"date":"2026-05-15T17:17:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/232875\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T17:17:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:17:53","slug":"trump-bare-knuckles-his-way-through-china-summit-without-his-trusty-cellphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/232875\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump bare-knuckles his way through China summit without his trusty cellphone"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEIJING \u2014 President Trump can\u2019t use his beloved cellphone while in China, one of the many logistical challenges<\/a> that he and White House staff faced on the ground in Beijing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The president, like all travelers to China, was told not to use personal devices in order to protect his data from hackers.<\/p>\n

It makes for a tough few days for Trump<\/a>, who is a frequent phone user \u2014 dialing friends, taking calls from reporters, and posting memes. <\/p>\n

A White House official confirmed the president wouldn\u2019t be using his personal phone in China.<\/p>\n

President Trump is limiting his cellphone use during his visit with President Xi over concerns about cybersecurity. Evan Vucci\/Pool Reuters via AP<\/p>\n

Posts to his Truth Social account have been limited during the summit \u2014 and have likely been posted from Washington, DC, where several White House staff are working Beijing hours to provide logistical support from afar.<\/p>\n

The president is not the only one making do without his personal cellular device during this \u201cdigital lockdown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Administration staffers are using burner phones and burner email addresses during the two-day summit \u2014 all part of the White House\u2019s efforts to keep information secure while ensuring the trip flows smoothly.<\/a><\/p>\n

These devices are stripped of most basic functions and apps to serve as \u201cclean\u201d devices \u2014 designed to hold minimal information if breached.<\/p>\n

President Trump is a frequent user of his cellphone, with many reporters having his personal number. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The State Department warns Americans traveling in China that \u201cthere is no expectation of privacy on mobile or other networks in China,\u201d and notes many travelers bring electronic devices without personal information.<\/p>\n

For White House staff, personal devices were stored on Air Force One in Faraday bags, which block all signals, including GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and RFID.<\/p>\n

The bags protect sensitive data from being hacked remotely.<\/p>\n

Trump and his staff will get access to their devices as soon as they board the presidential plane.<\/p>\n

Air Force One is considered American territory no matter where it\u2019s parked, and the plane, which functions as a flying Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, has other ways of protecting data.<\/p>\n

Trump and Xi have been discussing thorny issues, including the Iran war, Taiwan and trade. POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump has been discussing thorny issues with China\u2019s leader, Xi Jinping, over two days of meetings, including the Iran war,<\/a> Taiwan, trade and tech. <\/p>\n

The two world leaders also built on their personal rapport during a grand welcome ceremony<\/a>, a state banquet dinner, and even a Chinese band rendition of his favorite campaign song, \u201cYMCA.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIJING \u2014 President Trump can\u2019t use his beloved cellphone while in China, one of the many logistical challenges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7440,827,3007,153,9,11,10,87,58,14198],"class_list":["post-232875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-cybersecurity","tag-donald-trump","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-politics","tag-us-news","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}